PESHAWAR, June 21: The ongoing tussle between the federal and provincial archaeological departments has affected the conservation of archeological sites, hurting efforts to promote the Frontier’s cultural heritage, sources said on Saturday.

The Frontier government passed the Antiquities Act in 1997 when Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan of PML-N was chief minister.

It was an exact copy of the Federal Antiquities Act of 1975, hindering the smooth functioning of both the federal and provincial archaeology departments, sources told Dawn here on Saturday.

They said that the two institutions, working in parallel to each other, had also failed to stop illegal excavations in the province.

Sources said that differences between the two departments sharpened in March 2003 when the NWFP’s archaeological department stopped the federal department from carrying out the excavation and conservation work of the Mughal-era paintings and other artifacts at Gor Ghatri in Peshawar, sources added.

Presently, the federal archaeological department is tasked with conserving paintings on the eastern and western gates of Gor Ghatri, while the provincial department is assigned excavation work, the sources maintained.

Recently, South Korean archaeologists, intending to conduct research on the Gandhara civilization, visited Pakistan after securing the federal archaeological department’s permission to conduct research in Swat, Taxila, Chakdara and Peshawar museums.

Sources said that the South Korean experts were stopped from carrying out their work by the provincial archaeological department, requiring them to seek fresh permission from the provincial archaeological department.

The irritated Korean team had handed a letter to the Pakistani embassy in Seoul, complaining about the attitude of the provincial archaeological department.

Dr Naseem, archaeologist and assistant professor of the Peshawar University’s archaeology department, had recently been granted a licence to carry out excavation at the Kashmir Smast in Mardan district.

However, the provincial government did not permit him to carry out his work.

The provincial archaeology department, later, started work with its own team despite shortage of trained excavation staff, the sources said.

The provincial department, they said, was also working without a qualified architect, draftsman and photographer.

When asked to comment on the situation, provincial archaeological department’s chief Dr Ehsan Ali insisted that both the local and foreign experts were required to seek the provincial deparmtnet’s permission to carry out any kind of research or excavation work in the Frontier province.

He said that archaeological sites in the Frontier were being looked after by the provincial government.

The provincial department, he said, did not have experts on its permanent payroll.

Dr Ehsan Ali said that the provincial archaeological department was being helped by the Peshawar University’s department of archaeology in its research and excavation efforts.